Reconnaissance aircraft
A reconnaissance aircraft is a manned or unmanned military aircraft designed, or adapted, to carry out aerial reconnaissance. Their roles are to collect imagery intelligence, signals intelligence, and measurement.
History
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During the Napoleonic Wars and Franco-Prussian War, balloons were used for aerial reconnaissance by the French.[1]
In World War I, aircraft were deployed during the early phases in reconnaissance roles (eyes of the army) to aid ground forces.[1]
Aerial reconnaissance was mostly carried out by versions of standard fighters and bombers equipped with cameras.[2] After World War II and during the Cold War, when the United States developed several dedicated reconnaissance designs, including the U-2 and the SR-71 to deal with the nuclear threat from the Soviet Union.[3]
Today much of the strategic role has passed over to satellites,[4] and the tactical role to unmanned aerial vehicles. This was proven by the successful use by Israel and by the Desert Storm operation by the United States.[5]
See also
- Aerial reconnaissance
- Surveillance aircraft
- List of United States Air Force Reconnaissance Aircraft
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://centennialofflight.net/essay/Air_Power/WWI-reconnaissance/AP2.htm
- ↑ During World War II, "F-Planes" Weren't Fighters | Defense Media Network
- ↑ http://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Air_Power/cold_war/AP34.htm
- ↑ Satelite.Com Spy Satellites
- ↑ http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/docs/97-0349.pdf
External links
- spyflight
- "A Tale of Two Airplanes" by Kingdon R. "King" Hawes, Lt Col, USAF (Ret.)
- They Brave Death for a Picture: desperate chances taken by the flying camera-men, Popular Science monthly, January 1919, page 18-19, Scanned by Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=HykDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18
- "Army-Lockheed YO-3A Silent Airplane in Vietnam"
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